Manufacturer's Libraries, Catalogs, Footprints and Files Not Found

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I'm new to Autocad Electrical and have been going through LinkedIn's tutorial on the program. I've been running into a lot of issues of folders and files missing. I've managed to work through my previous issues but I'm absolutely stumped by this one. 

Basically I can't use any of my manufactures footprints or catalogs. I realize this has been a well documented issue and believe me, I've foraged through a ton of forums, tried many different things and I still can't get it to work. The most closely relatable forum I came across is this one, take a look at it...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-electrical-forum/manufacturers-catalogues/td-p/7695348

If you look at Scottishduthie's messages 10 - 12 that include a bunch of screenshots, that's exactly whats happening to me. I'm in a panel drawing, add a footprint, assign a manufacture's description from the catalog (the tutorial requests you to use "AB 800H-BR6A"), hit ok, and the dreadful "File not found: AB/PB-PUSHBUTTON/ABPB3R.dwg" pops up with the long list of paths. Unfortunately for me, that thread suddenly ended without any real fix or solution. 

So things that I have done...

• Ran repair from the control panel
• Added all the manufacture catalogs from the control panel 
  • I'm not real sure where these are even located after downloading. Are they added to the default_cat file or are they their own separate file? Where are they located?
• Checked my paths via project properties
  • I've included paths under "Panel Footprint Libraries" 
    • C:\Users\{public and personal}\Documents\Acade 2019\AeData\en-US\Catalogs
  • added a path to my secondary under "Catalog Lookup File Preference" as well with no avail
• Uninstalled and reinstalled versions 2019 and 2020
• Downloaded the default_cat.mdb file and replaced it 
• Downloaded the 2014 AB catalog and tried to replace that 
• I can add manufacturer names to schematic drawings all I want, that's not a problem at all. Its just when I get to the panel building that suddenly ONLY AB is available no matter what style of footprint I try to add (pushbutton, switch, motor, etc) and none of files can be found. 
• I tried looking them up in the "Manufacturer Menu" and clicking on "Vendor Menu Select." Only AB is displayed so I click on browse. I would assume the other manufacturers would be found down the C:/Users/{personal}/AppData/Roaming/Autodesk/AutoCAD Electrical 2019/R23.0/enu/support/ path but I can't even locate the AppData folder
  • I believe this is a system folder so it very well may be hidden, so where am I suppose to browse for more?

I understand that not all catalog items have an associated drawing, but I would think that items that are being used in the video of the tutorial (they are using 2018) would be the same for versions 2019 and 2020. 

So, as I mentioned, I'm absolutely stumped. I would happily welcome any kind of detailed suggestions. Feel free to show or explain any of my attempted solutions step by step.  Who knows, I may have missed a check box or something or another. If you want to interject please be specific and objective though. Are there particular files that need to be in particular folders down particular paths? I feel like I've tried everything but obviously there is something I've missed, so I think detail is key.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and input any of you may have. Hopefully I'll hear from all of you soon, until then, enjoy life. 

[Icemanau]

OK, it's real important to look at the actual file that ACADE can't find.

In your case, it 's looking for AB/PB-PUSHBUTTON/ABPB3R.dwg.

The DWG file type says it's actually not finding the footprint layout block dwg, nothing to do with the catalogue information being missing.

If the data was missing from the Catalogue, you wouldn't find an entry for it.

First thing to check is the search path for the library...

It should resemble "c:/program files/autodesk/acade <version>/Libs/panel" for imperial and "c:/program files/autodesk/acade <version>/Libs/panel_mm" for metric.

To find the Paths to the libraries, Right click on a project name and select Properties.

In Project Settings, the first section is the Library & Icon Menu Paths.

Expand the Panel Footprint Libraries entry and check to see if it somewhat matches the entry I gave.

Click Browse to Verify that the panel directory it is pointing to is actually in that location.

If it's not, find the directory and point the footprints at the appropriate location.

Do note that the metric dwgs are very sparse and most will need to be inserted from the panel directories and scaled to suit.

Regards Brad